white noise

It all began when Apple software engineer Gray Powell — a 2006 NC State grad, incidentally — took the prototype of his company’s new iPhone to a bar in Redwood City, Calif. on the night before his birthday. An undisclosed amount of German beers later, he had left the bar without the iPhone, which eventually made its way into the hands of technology website Gizmodo — after $5,000 changed hands. Gizmodo ran a great preview of this new product and the media responded with much ado, debating the ethics of paying for sourc es,

the folly of Apple’s notorious secrecy about new products, the nature of stealth marketing and other aspects of the case. The tale took a turn early this week when police in San Mateo County, Calif. Raided the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, seizing four computers, two servers and an iPad as evidence in a pending criminal case against the site. Crazy business. And while it has been established that Apple did not leak the iPhone on purpose, as a marketing ploy it still worked. I have got to have that damn phone.